Vrabel facing Titans first time since firing, says he’s unfazed

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Mike Vrabel downplayed his upcoming return to Tennessee, where his surging New England Patriots team visits his former team, the Titans, on Sunday.

Vrabel served as Titans head coach from 2018-23 and posted a 56-48 record (including playoffs), which included division titles in 2020 and 2021, three playoff berths, and a trip to the AFC Championship Game in the 2019 season. Vrabel, who earned AP Coach of the Year honors in 2021, was fired by owner Amy Adams Strunk after Tennessee posted a 6-11 record in 2023.

“It will be nice to see some people that I haven’t seen in a few years that helped us win — players and staff,” Vrabel said Monday, the day after the Patriots’ 25-19 win over the Saints — the team’s third victory in a row. “But we’ve got a huge job to do here as we prepare for them.”

In his weekly radio interview on WEEI, Vrabel added: “I think it’s going to feel different, but it can’t be different; the way we prepare, the way we try to put together a game plan. But we have to recognize the obvious — me having spent time there, so a lot of people on the other side who I know that coach or worked with.”

Vrabel, in his first season as Patriots coach, has his team playing with a similar identity to his old Titans teams — one that prioritizes “effort and finish” and “ball security and ball disruption.”

Quarterback Drake Maye has hit his stride in recent weeks, becoming just the fourth player in NFL history under 24 years old to record at least 200 passing yards and a passer rating of 100 or higher in five consecutive games. The others are Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes (seven straight games in 2018, five games in 2018-19), former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino (six straight games in 1984) and Dallas’ Dak Prescott (fight straight games in 2016).

Veteran center Garrett Bradbury was among Patriots players who acknowledged Vrabel’s return to Tennessee.

“There’s probably a little bit about Coach Vrabel that’s fired up for it, but … we’ll worry about [it] later. When we start making things bigger than what they are or focusing down the road; we have to live in the moment,” he said.

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“It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, you have to have a good today. That’s kind of the message Coach Vrabel shares. We have a lot of guys, former Tennessee people in this building, so there will be a little extra for them. But as players we have to show up and execute.”

Veteran offensive lineman Morgan Moses echoed those thoughts in an interview with WBZ-TV, saying of Vrabel: “He’s a selfless guy so he doesn’t want it to be about him.”